The AMAR Board of Trustees
AMAR's trustees are specialist advisers whose expertise spans culture and science, technology and eHealth, archaeology, and Middle Eastern policy.
Our Trustees
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne serves as AMAR's Executive Chairman. She co-founded AMAR, beginning her work in 1991, a year before the organisation was formally established in 1992. She is also a sitting Peer in the House of Lords. Baroness Nicholson is the Founder President of the Caine Prize for African Writing and a Founder Member of the Booker Prize Foundation and of the Booker Prize for Russian Fiction. She acts as a World Health Organisation Envoy for Health as a Tool for Peace and Development. She was a member of the House of Commons from 1987 to 1997, when she was created a Life Peer in the House of Lords. She later represented the South East region of England in the European Parliament as an MEP from 1999 to 2009, serving as Chairman of the Delegation for Relations with Iraq and as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and its subcommittee on human rights. In January 2014, Baroness Nicholson was appointed Trade Envoy to Iraq for the UK. Dr. Anthony Richard Rowsell, DPhil FRCS FRACS (Plastic), co-founded AMAR alongside Baroness Nicholson. Dr Rowsell is also a fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford, where he researches the management of battle casualties on the Western Front during the First World War. He is also part of the telemedicine team in the computing department at Buckingham University. Hareth Fouad Efram Boustany is a Professor of Archaeology and History of the Civilizations at the Lebanese University, Beirut, and headed its Department for Arts and Archaeology until December 2007. Professor Boustany sits on the executive councils of the Lebanese National UNESCO Commission and the Lebanese National Heritage Foundation. He is also a visiting Professor of Phoenician Archaeology and History of Ancient Civilisations at the University of St-Esprit-Kaslik and the University of St. Joseph. He has previously served as a consultant and head of the archaeology department of Solidere, The Lebanese Company for the Development and Reconstruction of Beirut Central District. Professor Boustany earned a doctorate in Oriental History and Archaeology at the Sorbonne, Paris, and is best known for his time as curator of the Beirut National Museum from 1970 to 1979. Dr. Theodore Zeldin has worked with AMAR since 1997. After completing his studies at London University's Birkbeck College at the age of 17, Dr Zeldin went on to attend Christ Church Oxford. While at Oxford, he helped build up St Antony's College as the postgraduate centre for international studies and served as Dean of the college for 13 years. Damon Parker is AMAR's legal advisor and has worked with AMAR since 2012. Specialising in contentious trusts, probate and tax matters, Mr Parker also works specifically with charities, trust companies and private individuals involved in trust variations and disputes. He has worked extensively across all aspects of court work involving trusts and tax schemes, both in the UK and offshore. Dr Kazem Behbehani, PhD, FRCPath (UK).
AMAR's trustees bring together expertise from the worlds of culture, science, technology, eHealth, archaeology and Middle Eastern policy. Their guidance supports the organisation's work, and each member's background is set out in the profiles above.